1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of outputting menu items and set values for the respective menu items. Examples of the image forming apparatus include a printer, facsimile, and coping machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a printer, for example, there is a menu for setting a printer operation environment. The menu includes a number of menu items such as the number of copies and the size of paper. Each menu item has a set value and a few settable values. For the paper size, for example, the default value is “A4” and the settable values are “Letter, A5, and A6”. One of the methods for checking the menu item and the set value is printing them on paper. This printing is called “menu map printing”.
As FIG. 8 shows, the menu map printed on a paper sheet 1 includes the menu items and the set values for the respective menu items. This menu map is printed by the key operation of the user or the menu map printing command of a host computer connected to the printer. The menu map is provided for the user to check the set values. Especially, at a time of printer breakdown, it is necessary to compare the menu item value changed by the user with the factory default value.
The conventional menu map clearly shows the menu items and their set values but fails to show if any factory default value changed by the user and the menu item changed by the user. Consequently, it is necessary to compare the set values on the menu map and those of the owner's manual, presenting the problem that it takes a long time or causes an error in the comparison. Thus, it has been proposed to provide a menu map that shows both the factory default values and the current set values side by side. However, this method of showing the values side by side still fails to solve the above problem when the number of menu items becomes large.